What to Expect at CES 2012

January's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) is the most important event on the tech calendar—it's where hundreds of companies, big and small, unveil their hottest gadgets for the coming year. Here are the most important, stories, products and concepts you can expect from CES 2012.

Ultrabooks

Ultrabooks

They're super-light, unbelievably thin, and—judging by the coming onslaught from the world's biggest PC manufacturers—the inevitable future of laptops. CES organizers expect the introduction of 30 to 50 Ultrabooks at the show this year. (For context, research firm NPD counted just 260 unique PC laptops on store shelves in 2011.) This means that everyone—HP, Asus, Lenovo, and even Dell—will march down the path blazed by the MacBook Air.

A Windows Resurgence

A Windows Resurgence

This may be Microsoft's last year as the CES keynote company, but Microsoft will play a huge role in CES 2012. Windows 8, the next generation of the company's near-universal desktop software, will have an entirely new interface suited to both traditional PCs and tablets, and was announced to the public in 2011. We can expect to see Windows 8 tablet concepts at the show, alongside a new fleet of Windows Phone devices. Nokia, for example, is expected to show off an America-bound 4G Windows Phone, which could compete with the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Nexus and, of course, the iPhone 4S.